Destiny Override
by Flaming Platinum
Summary: [04 AT/AUish] Despite a truck crashing into him, Takuya was still able to follow his destiny, even with his paralyzed legs. However, due to the passage of time, the Digital World was changed from what it was supposed to be. The same went for Takuya's role.
1. The Multitude of his Destiny

**Back with yet another Frontier rewrite... I think this should be the last one. If not, I apologize. Anyways, for all you V-Tamers fans, yes, he does end up like Rei and it was kind of an accident. But since Neo isn't around to make the story a little bit more interesting, you don't need it to worry about it being the Rei, Neo, and Hideto part of V-Tamers, only with the Frontier cast! And I'm sorry for spoiling V-Tamers for those who haven't read it...  
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><p><strong>The Multitude of his Destiny<strong>

Why couldn't he…

_Get out of the way!_

But it was human nature to stand still in a life threatening moment, and he was human. Most certainly, one-hundred- percent human. At least in this moment in time. He couldn't tell if destiny wanted to prove otherwise.

Or maybe it wanted him dead. Why else would he run into a truck like that. The soccer ball seemed to be perfectly placed. And so did that truck…

Oh why couldn't he move out of the way?

He couldn't feel anything below him, or did he mean something else? He knew he was feeling, but feeling what? He knew there was a part he couldn't feel...was there?

Really, the only thing he was sure of was his throat hurting from screaming that disappeared already.

-0-0-0-

"It's a shame. This is the second kid to come today. Same hour too..."

Was he talking about him? No, there seemed to be someone at the door.

Takuya attempted to sit up, but a pain shot through him. It, however, didn't completely jolt his brain. But it did get him to lie back down.

_What happened? _

There were bandages then the phone...the phone! But he was already late from the beginning. There was no way that it was still minutes away from five forty-five. That was the cutoff time apparently.

He sighed. Now he won't know what that message was talking about. At least the white of the bandages... Weren't bandages supposed to be white?

It finally hit him. The truck, the bandages, it all made sense now.

This was what happened after the truck, wasn't it? After attempting to follow his destiny... What cruel game was this anyways?

But it didn't feel like it was one. Shouldn't there have been more to this? Aside from the from the truck and apparent visit to the hospital?

Takuya grabbed his phone. It was broken, but that didn't matter. Simply holding the phone was enough.

The message had ordered him to take the five forty-five to Shibuya Station, that was it. Had it wanted it to kill him quickly wouldn't it have said to simply go outside? There was another reason for this message, right?

"Well...good news and bad news," a voice said as it entered the room. Takuya could recognize it as a doctor, someone he kind of didn't want to see now.

"Your legs are unusable. There's no way we can fix them either - you can't fix nerve cells. But then you won't be stuck in this stuffy hospital." The doctor let out a laugh. Takuya didn't. "Still need to come back for checkups, but that's only twice a week at the moment."

But that wasn't what Takuya wanted to hear. There was this destiny hanging around, still waiting to be fully opened by him. Right now, he just scratched the surface and got hurt.

"Shibuya Station... Take me there."

"But we need you to stay home and get some rest."

Takuya didn't know if that was possible for him. He was always moving, and he intended on keeping it that way somehow.

"But my family's staying at that area. We're...visiting someone," he lied.

"Then we need someone to pick you up."

He was playing ping-pong, wasn't he? "They're out and I noticed that they left their phones..." Takuya knew he wasn't good at lying, but he needed to do this now. Hopefully he'll believe him.

"That's odd, well..." The doctor rubbed his head. "We need a legal adult's signature to properly release you..."

"Can't you take me home? And then get a signature when they come home?" Takuya asked, giving a sheepish smile.

"Well... There seems to be no other solution since we can't keep you here for long..."

-0-0-0-

It took about twenty minutes to get Takuya settled into a wheelchair he actually liked.

They were all meant for someone who was definitely not him, like elderly or people with a lot less movement. He, however, was meant to go fast. And if he couldn't run, then his mode of transportation had to, and this was the closest one to it.

Another thing that took awhile was the argument on how fast he should get to Shibuya Station. They finally agreed on medium-fast pace, mainly so that Takuya knows that he was going fast enough while the doctor could know that he would be able to get some rest.

Which he kind of did. There was this odd feeling of tiredness that was taking over him, disabling his ability to shake it off like he normally does. Maybe it was the fact he was now sitting still, doing nothing but watching the scenery go by. Stuff that he never noticed, like the amount of trees in this area. But still, it was boring. Maybe he was going to get something more exciting in this little nap…

-0-0-0-

He was walking.

He was most definitely walking.

And he was most definitely not human.

Takuya didn't know exactly what was going on, but it was clear: he wasn't himself, and he was himself. And he wasn't broken anymore, almost as if magic healed him.

Was it magic? There was no explanation for him suddenly being able to get up. But, he wasn't himself in this. He wasn't filled with scales nor wearing a mask that seemed to replace his face entirely. Nor was he born with long hair the color of fire.

Was it messing with him? No, it appeared to be…

"Hey, where do we go now?"

Takuya's eyes opened up a bit. He could just hazily make out the train station. On instinct, he leaned forward to get up, only to feel that jolt of pain once again.

"You might want to refrain from doing that," the doctor said. Takuya simply nodded in response.

But as for the question that he was asked… To be quite honest, he didn't know. The message didn't tell him anything about what to do after he got here, but there was that feeling that was coming from the elevator. Maybe that would get him somewhere?

"We need to take the elevator."

There was little conversation during the wait for the elevator. Mainly because there was nothing to discuss. The doctor seemed to not want to hear anything more from Takuya, probably because of all those lies while Takuya really wasn't in the mood to talk. There was all that muddled confusion of just about everything. The most confusing being that dream, with this whole destiny thing being next.

The doors opened, allowing the waiting people to get on. But all Takuya could see was green static. No one else seemed to pay attention to it.

Could they even notice it? Takuya looked around as best he could, and from what he could see, everyone had nonchalant expressions. Nothing seemed to crossed their minds as they boarded. Expect for those obvious little things, like if they should wait or not.

Maybe he was simply imagining things. He was still a little groggy from that nap, so maybe that affected his vision.

Or maybe he was special.

Oh get that out of his head. There seems to be nothing special about getting run over by a truck and having to lie to follow the destiny that nearly cost you your life. That was simply being unlucky, plain and simple.

Though, being confined to this chair that he could barely operate prevented him from acting out his suspicions. And the amount of time it took to finally get the doctor to believe his little lie prevented him from asking to turn back.

So instead, he entered the elevator, trying his best to avoid body contact with the green things.

If only it was that easy. The green static kept on reaching out for him, grabbing hold of his arms and legs (which miraculously didn't hurt) in an attempt to pull him forward. When it seemed to have realized that doing that wasn't enough, it also grabbed the arms of his wheelchair, pulling him towards the wall. No one seemed to have noticed.

Takuya attempted to guard himself from going head-to-head with the elevator doors with his hands, only it was in vain. Nothing crashed into anything and he could feel the static disappear from his arms.

He removed his arms from their guard position, only to finally see that there was no one.

_What?_

He was sure that there was at least one other person in the elevator aside from him, and that should've been the doctor. But when he turned around to check, only the green static manned the wheelchair. No doctor in sight.

"What kind of joke is -"

And he caught eye of the panel that showed what floor you were on. The lowest level should've been B1, but the dots were going below that.

Maybe it was his destiny to die, only it was slow, one by one death. First the bottom part of him, then his sanity, and finally the rest of him.

This really was a cruel game.

But would the doors open to reveal a single train if this was a cruel game?

The answer was 'no'.

The static pushed him out and remained in the elevator, doing what looked like a wave.

"Uh, bye, I guess," Takuya said, waving back to the static. It was still weird, but there was nothing wrong with showing gratitude of sorts, even if all it did was get him out of the elevator.

_Now where should I go...?_

From the looks of things, he had to go to that train that was docked at the station thing, but how would he get there?

_I think I move the wheels..._

He moved his hands to the closest wheels that he could find, pushing them both forward. He ended up going in a zigzag pattern, but at least he was moving.

-0-0-0-

Takuya breathed a sigh of relief. He managed to get to the train in a reasonable about of time, but he still never managed to get it to move completely straight. Still, he did make it into the train and face the door that he entered through, so that was a plus.

And plus, he at least knew he wasn't going to die. The train seemed to be like one of those normal ones, only with seemingly better seats. Ones that he could never try out, but it kind of didn't matter now. This definitely wasn't a train leading him to his death.

Bored, he looked out the window, seeing nothing but gray. It kind of made sense since he was underground, but wouldn't that be an ugly mixture of black and brown? Unless they did some kind of paint job...

And then there was a spark of yellow and green, followed by a white glow.

"Uh-oh, they're back. Excuse me as I do a detour."

Takuya looked around for someone else on the train, but there wasn't anyone. And that certainly wasn't static ringing when that was said.

"Who's they?" And who was that? Though Takuya didn't feel the need to ask who the speaker was.

"You mean you don't know?" the unknown speaker asked. "Wait, do you even know what I am?"

Takuya started to shake his head 'no' before realizing that he had to speak to get a response. "No."

"A Trailmon," it responded.

"What's a Trailmon?" Takuya asked. He was pretty sure that this was a train. After all, there was practically everything that a train had.

"The primary transportation of the Digital World. Unless you can fly."

The figure from his dreams appeared again. Maybe they were connected, but how? And besides, what was this Digital World anyways?

"So you're still a train?"

"Yup, only I can do more that your average one."

This wasn't making any sense.

"Uh so -"

"Keep quiet for a second, okay?"

Takuya reluctantly did what he was told. There were still questions that he had to ask, like the original question of who were they, and others that arose from the little conversation. And there was no way he could piece it all together himself.

"Darn it, we ran out of tracks," the Trailmon said as the thing came to an abrupt halt. "They must've known I would've gone this way."

The doors opened. "Well, get out. There's no point in you getting destroyed by them. But hey, cheer up -" How could it even know he was feeling a bit glum? "- there are four, I believe, other creatures like you that are here. They should help out even more."

There was a huff of smoke that pushed him out of the Trailmon before the doors closed.

Takuya stole a glance at the front of the train to see if it had any features on the front that made it different. What he saw instead was something he didn't want to know about.

When the Trailmon said that it ran out of tracks, he had expected to see the trails end and be left with solid ground. He did not think it would translate into a big gaping hole right at the end.

He froze in fear. Yes, he could move with his wheelchair, but it was a zigzag format. And within that format, there would be times that he would move backwards before finally going forward. What if he moved backwards far enough to fall in? It seemed to have no end, and he definitely didn't want to prove that it was, one-hundred percent, an abyss.

"What's the matter? They're going to catch you at this rate if you don't move."

"Can't move."

"You're going to have to if you want to survive."

Was this world basically the survival of the fittest?

"I don't want to fall into that hole," Takuya responded.

"If you just walk straight you shouldn't fall -" Its eyes darted over to where Takuya was. "- oh."

Takuya gave a slight nod to acknowledge the fact he couldn't move, despite already knowing said fact.

"Try moving them different directions. That's how my wheels work anyways."

Was that how they were supposed to work? He just assumed they both went forward. Well, if a wheel-user told him how to move, it must be true. Takuya moved the right one backwards and the left one forward, only to find himself turning right.

He wasn't close to the end when he stopped, but he was way closer to the Trailmon. "I thought I was supposed to move forward!"

"Right one forward, left one backward."

Oh, so it mattered what order it was in. He tried what it just suggested, to find that it did move him towards the left. "I don't think that worked." Though to be fair, he was moving forward before this happened. Oddly, but still going forward. "Actually, never mind, I think I got it."

"Well be off then. Though I don't recommend going straight."

So that meant that he should turn and go straight.

-0-0-0-

It did take him awhile to get used to moving this way, but by the time he got to the point where he couldn't see the red body of the Trailmon he was able to move fairly well. There were some times when he accidentally went backwards instead of forwards or turned when he meant to continue moving, but it was expected. Especially since this world was also pretty distracting.

It was bleak, yes, but the monsters were weird. He wanted to get a better look at a majority of them, which a lot of them didn't seem to allow.

Of course, some did, hence why he was carrying a little pink fuzz ball on his lap as he maneuvered through the area. Though he was sure it was going to bounce away later on to hide in the next available tree. Every monster he had encounter seem to do that.

But Takuya didn't mind. It made room for the next one that wanted to sleep on his lap or if it was too large to do so, the next one to help him push the wheelchair along. They were just so helpful like that.

And weird. Though, more like a curious weird then stay away weird. They were either fluffier versions of animals he had seen before, menacing ones, hybrids, or even inanimate objects. It just made him forget about some of the questions he had for a bit.

But it didn't stop him from wondering why the world was grey. The monsters here didn't seem to fit the environment that moving by. While some were a bit on the scary side, a majority of them were soft and cuddly, while the others were pretty helpful. There was no way they could live in a bleak world like this one.

Unless that Trailmon was hinting at something with those minor interjections in their conversation. There had to be a reason for him to have stayed silent for the rest of that ride. And judging by the fact that it seemed to have a face, it most definitely had a mouth. At least, it should. Takuya had no clue if mouths were a requirement in this world.

Maybe there was something about this 'they'? He didn't know - he could barely use common sense to pass through a social studies exam, let alone also know the dates for everything those old people did. And while here was real life - _his _life - common sense wasn't something he was going to apply. Then again, it might not have been applicable in this world in the first place.

Takuya noticed the little pink fuzz ball bounce off of his lap and doing what the others before it did. He waited a bit to see if another one would come out and continue the cycle. About five minutes passed before he decided to just move one. He would be moving alone for once in this world, which wasn't much of a problem. All he really had to do was stay out of any untrustworthy monsters' way and he was fine.

"So is the little hatted boy going to pick me up?"

Takuya looked around to find the speaker. It was behind him, but he didn't feel the need to turn around and face him.

"I guess if you want me to," Takuya responded. No one really asked him if they could follow him. They just did it. Well, maybe this one was insecure about it.

"You're the first nice human I've ever met, you know?" it said as it pushed Takuya's wheelchair along.

"What do you mean?" He knew he wasn't the nicest, all those little fights with Shinya proved he was far from it. But maybe humans weren't common here?

"Oh so you don't know."

Takuya shook his head.

"There are these group of people who constantly attack me, over and over. Half of the time I'm doing nothing but standing around. But they don't seem to care."

"That doesn't seem very nice." It was right, he was pretty nice, if only by comparison.

But didn't that Trailmon -

"Anyways, enough with that. I'm Arbormon, the Legendary Warrior of Wood."

"What's a Legendary Warrior?" And there it was again - that scaled animal with a mane the color of fire.

"A group of special Digimon that are supposed to help save this world. Only four of them went evil on us, while the other four are doing our best to counter them. One's defeated while another one lays dormant apparently."

If he was doing the math right, there should be ten of them. That seemed a bit larger than what he normally sees in comics where groups of heroes try to save the world, but still plausible. But what was with it with the turning against each other? It was common in his comics for that to happen, and now it was here? Well, there are issues with larger groups…

"Hey, you want to see what I can do with my element?"

Takuya nodded.

Arbormon took a step back and slammed its hands to the ground. A whole bunch of trees fell down, crashing into each other. They also blocked the path in front of them, but Takuya just assumed that Arbormon was just going to clear it up later.

Only vines started to grow from the ground, meeting the ones behind Takuya at the top, perfectly enclosing him in this little cage.

"What's the meaning of this!" He thought Arbormon was supposed to be the good one, the one that would help him through this world.

"I just love it when they're too kind. And not to mention disabled."

The last thing Takuya saw before Arbormon knocked him out was a flash of light not too far away in the distance.


	2. There's a Thing Called a Person

**Apologize for posting later than normal. This was supposed to have a normal schedule, but wifi problems and such happened. Anyways, let's get to the story!**

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><p><strong>There's a Thing Called a "Person"<strong>

Really, it should've been gone by now.

Zoe wasn't exactly sure how long it has been since, well, "that thing" as she loved to dub it. Maybe she would've referred to it as "the message" had she not been here for as long as she had.

It, however, wasn't a bad thing - she loved to be Kazemon, which resulted in her being a more physical form of wind. There was just a lack of humans, or should she say _normal _humans.

Every human around her simply scanned the code around their hands and became the embodiment of their element - a version everyone could clearly see and understand. And it has been done so many times that the line between human and Digimon was gone.

Which tied back to _it_.

Not "that thing", but the actual reason for staying. It was foes like Arbormon who forced them to stay here longer than they bargained.

And maybe it was foes like it that caused her to become a lot more aggressive. There was always that possibility.

"You might want to fly down lower," JP said. He fell behind the other three a bit, but it didn't matter so much. His alerting her to fly down meant they were near their target.

"Thanks," Zoe said, flying down to the floor instead of a lower position. It was a bit harder for her to walk in Zephyrmon than in Kazemon, but she did it anyways. Most people expected her to fly there anyways.

There was no point in running to catch the other two that went on ahead. The spirit of Beetlemon looked a little heavy to Zoe (even though JP said that it was perfectly comfortable). Also she was terrible at running like this. Besides, it wasn't like they could've been that far behind.

"How long has it been?" Zoe asked. It wasn't exactly appropriate, but then again they were those same enemies in the beginning. And so far there's been only one completely gone and another is missing its beast spirit. Why did it take so long?

But JP didn't really answer. They had reached the spot where the others were

"To think that guy would cause so much trouble in his _human _form," Kouji said, stressing out each word a bit more than they had to be. Human especially.

"But the bad guys _always _have some kind of unfair power-up," Tommy said. It was almost as if he was responding directly to Kouji, who honestly didn't care what was uttered, as Zoe came to realize. He was more of a do-it-alone type of guy, who couldn't do it his way.

"Anyways," Kouji said, completely ignoring what was said before. "We need a plan to get rid of Arbormon forever." The rest was a bunch of mumbling that Zoe couldn't decipher since she was too far away.

"So then what are we supposed to do?" JP asked.

"Zoe will take care of the captive while you and Tommy cover me." Without waiting for any response, he took off, the light of evolution surrounding him.

With a nod, the remaining three went off their separate ways.

It wasn't hard to get to the prisoner without getting noticed - the others did a great job of getting him off-guard.

_Now, what Digimon is it that needs to be -?_

Zoe had never seen a wheelchair in the Digital World.

She knew she had to be quiet or else the plan would fall faster than rain from the sky, but she wanted to say _something_. She found an imposter; she found a trap. Something like that.

But first off, she needed to check to make sure it really wasn't a trap.

The gaps within the tree cage were actually long enough for her to slip through with no problem. Maybe it was a trap. There was no way someone would be unable to go through these cracks. And she even had wings!

Zoe practically threw away the wheelchair, with its landing near the 'walls'. Underneath was a boy who looked around her age, asleep and unmoving.

She de-evolved. This wasn't a matter to be handled with her evolution. Gently, Zoe shook him, trying her best to see if he would respond.

An arm moved a bit, proving that he was indeed alive. But Zoe didn't see what she normally saw when she woke someone up. They would always turn over, but he didn't. He was still in that crouched position, as if he was still sitting.

And maybe that's why there was a wheelchair next to him. But, it was just so odd…

"It hurts."

Zoe lept back. She didn't expect him to talk so soon. But it was a good thing.

"I know, they're pretty loud." Her attention was finally brought back to the fight that was going on outside. She couldn't make out who had the advantage, but she knew that at least someone had to. And she was hoping that it was her team.

"Huh?" The boy's eyes darted to Zoe, widening in confusion. He didn't seem to be talking about the fight going outside.

She started to make way towards the wheelchair she had moved over before.

"Hey, can you please tell me what's going on?"

She still ignored him though. Maybe if she just focused on one thing then she wouldn't have to focus so much on everything else. Like how he was one-hundred-percent human.

Though it was flung far, there was no visible damage on it. At least, aside from the dirt she saw on it, but that was natural.

"I told you they were mean, hatted boy."

Was Arbormon referring to them? But they certainly weren't mean, were they?

But it didn't matter now. With a flash of light, Arbormon disappeared, along with the little cage.

_Oh right, the boy!_

Zoe quickly wheeled the chair back to where the boy was lying. She found that the others were with him already, out of their Digimon forms.

"Stand up!" Kouji commanded. It was typical of him not to care about the person he was speaking to.

"You shouldn't be too harsh on him," JP said. But Kouji didn't seem to calm down at all.

And the boy didn't seem to move. At least to Zoe; it was hard to see what he was doing from behind.

"You see, there's a wheelchair," JP said, allowing Zoe to know that he acknowledged her. "Maybe he's disabled."

"If he's disabled then he shouldn't be here!"

"JP, do you mind helping him up?" Zoe asked. He nodded.

-0-0-0-

What caused that yelling? He knew he was disabled, but that wasn't something that would cause one to yell. Unless something had happened.

But still, Takuya felt so minuscule in front of them. Three out of four of them were arguing. About what? The logical answer was him.

The other one, however, was looking at the wheelchair.

"Can you move with these handles?" he asked.

"Lemme see if I can try." Takuya put his arms behind him, trying his best to locate the little handles. When he found them, he pushed as hard as he could. There was little movement forward, but at least it was straighter than what he normally did.

"I did it!" he yelled, pumping his fists in the air. He could hear clapping from the little boy.

"Is there any other way to move?"

To answer his question, Takuya started to move the way he normally did. He was still going everywhere _but _straight - with all those zigzag-like movements - but at least he was still moving.

"You see, he can move on his own," the girl said.

"But that wheelchair will make him an easy target," the one with the ponytail fired back.

Takuya sighed. He assumed these were the four other humans that the Trailmon said were supposed to help him out. But they weren't helping him at all. They were arguing, which never did anyone any good.

Maybe it would've been better had he just denied their help. Okay, accept the help with getting into his wheelchair - that was something he couldn't do alone - but wave off the offering to stay in their group, had he done that, the argument probably wouldn't have happened.

Or maybe it was the pure fact that he was here in the condition he was in. That was what started the yelling after all.

But still, it was primarily his fault that there was this argument. This big feud really didn't have a point.

It wasn't even like he had a welcome anyway. No one would get annoyed if he left. They would most likely be glad if he left anyway.

"Where are you going?"

"Huh?" Takuya forgot the little one was the only one who wasn't engaged in the argument. "Oh. Just somewhere away from here."

He wasn't one to get defeated so easily, but he just couldn't stand it when there were fights. It always made him feel bad. Like he or Shinya or both of them did something wrong, even when he knew they didn't.

"But why?"

There really wasn't a legitimate reason for this: well, a harmless one. All of the reasons were mainly "I don't want to break up your group", and that would hurt those who were actually trying to get him to stay.

"You, come here."

Well, there went that plan.

Takuya wheeled himself over to them. Maybe this would take care of that arguing problem.

"There's a dormant Spirit in my D-Tector. If it works with you, then fine. If it doesn't, then go home."

"Spirit?" Takuya asked. He did have one of his own, but why would he need one to react with him?

But the ponytailed one didn't care to answer. He simply pointed an odd shaped device at Takuya. Light shown from it, until it became a hazy orange color that burned.

It was really fire.

And like fire, it burned. It burned him until he felt like there was nothing left for it to burn. Until all of his flesh and his bones burned away to ashes and then nothing.

Only it was still there. Nothing got destroyed within the fire. It was just a sensation he was having, it seemed.

A device fell from his pocket, landing face up. There was an odd symbol in a brownish background that vanished. In its place was a something that resembled a messed up version of the kanji for fire.

And the fire seemed to have left him and gone to said device.

"I don't want to do that again." Honestly, how could they expect him to?

Only the ponytailed one just picked up the device and mumbled something that Takuya couldn't catch. He then gave it back to Takuya before turning away.

"Just don't expect me to baby you."

Takuya honestly didn't care if that was the case. The world seemed to be the survival of the fittest, at least that's what he got from the Trailmon and that previous fight. It wouldn't seem right if he got a free way out, even if it did seem like the less painful way.

"Kouji!" the female snapped. But he paid no mind.

"It's okay, I don't need to be babied," Takuya said. It was an attempt to get her to calm down, but it failed. She just turned around and followed him to chastise him. It was probably for his attitude, from what Takuya could guess.

"Well, welcome to our little weird group," the fat one started, "I think you'll fit in quite fine."

Takuya wasn't going to doubt that.

-0-0-0-

There was a lot of explaining to be done. Obviously not by the ponytailed one - who Takuya was supposed to now address as Kouji - but by the others, namely JP and Zoe - the ones who he had been addressing as the fat one and the female - with Tommy, who was the youngest, popping in occasionally.

If he could simply say one short little sentence about what he had learned…well, that was technically impossible. But he could say that it was definitely a lot more thorough than the Trailmon's explanation. Then again, it was simply explaining what it was and its role in this world. It didn't mean to go in-depth with everything.

This, however, seemed like a lecture rather than an actual conversation. The world wasn't a game; nor was it a place to explore. It was now a battlefield, a war zone, a place a death. The victims got reborn, but there was no guarantee about anything. Survival, memories, nothing was certain.

But that wasn't what Takuya was interested in. He did feel bad about what happened to all those Digimon that died like that, but it wasn't as bizarre as their method of fighting.

"You mean, you don't stay like this?" That was the nicest way he could put it. It was also the only way his mind felt like saying it.

They shook their heads no.

"We're too weak in this form," JP responded.

Well, Takuya wasn't in a spot to argue with that. He was already kind of useless the way he was. There was nothing he could really do, except punching things that come extremely close and are around his height.

Maybe that's why Kouji was annoyed with him. He was unable to do anything useful, at least to him. But even Takuya had problems finding his own usefulness here.

But of course, if this thing changes him… He held onto the D-Tector. That was impossible, wasn't it? It couldn't change his genetic code up that much, right?

"What's wrong?" Tommy asked. Takuya didn't realize he was looking down like that.

"Oh nothing," he responded. Looking down to his D-Tector, he spoke mainly to himself. "I'll just be surprised if this changes anything about me."

The others just seemed to shrug it off. They then each went off to their little corners, doing what seemed right to for them to do.

Takuya sighed. He didn't think that he'd get along with any of them. It was all just a bizarre and weird situation that made absolutely no sense.

And plus, Arbormon was right, if only by a little bit. They _were _kind of mean. Yes, Arbormon had locked him up in a cage and tricked him, but wasn't that all he did? The cage was filled with large openings that he could've easily gone through.

Takuya touched his cheek. The bruise was large, but it didn't really hurt. It probably did while he was knocked out, but now it wasn't.

And that was all Arbormon did before it got destroyed. Or was it scanned? He remembered seeing a string of code getting sucked into something.

Either way, Arbormon was gone. And maybe it didn't get a second chance. Maybe it got reborn without its memories, unable to remember the nice things that happened during its lifespan.

But still, even with that aside, everyone was pretty nice. He hadn't expected them to take him in, even if one of them didn't even want him. Three out of four was a nice thing to deal with.

"What is it?"

To be fair, Takuya hadn't asked anything. But still... "Nothing really, just...why did you destroy Arbormon?"

He could just hear a growl coming from Kouji. "The world isn't a free place for anything to roam."

And maybe that's what it meant.

But couldn't he let it go? He was certainly doing the wrong thing...picking a fight with anyone here wasn't really a good idea, especially after the fact that they were willingly accepting of him. And yet, Takuya just couldn't find it in himself to stop trying to defend the creatures here. Sure, he didn't know them well, but…

"But wouldn't we be considered anything?"

Kouji sighed. "There are things that belong and there are things that don't. We belong. Things like Arbormon don't."

But who decided whether or not they were useful.

"So, if I tested negative, I wouldn't have belonged?"

Kouji nodded. "Maybe you won't be as annoying as I thought."

That wasn't what he wanted to hear though. He had been taught that everyone had a proper place, but none of them was dead, or deleted in the case of this world, as it seemed.

"Maybe it just didn't find its proper place. Maybe it was going to find it, before you destroyed it."

It definitely wasn't a good idea to do this. But Takuya really didn't want to step down. There were things that were moral and things that were unjust. This fell into the latter category.

"You're not blind. Can't you see this world?"

Takuya could see it. He knew it, actually - the bleakness of this world, unfitting to the monsters that he saw - it wasn't something that he could easily forget. And it happened hours ago, but _that _wasn't really important.

"Arbormon aided in the creation of this ugly world, and therefore he _doesn't belong._"

He almost wanted to ask if they had aided in it too, but held back. There was a certain tone in Kouji's voice that Takuya couldn't place, and it probably could grow into something ugly. There was no way he was testing that out.

"So you guys are like the heroes then?" he asked instead.

"I thought they already told you that." Kouji definitely wasn't in the mood to continue or have a conversation.

Takuya gave a little smile. "My parents always told me that being a hero isn't as easy as media shows it. But it seems that here it's like the media."

Kouji just shrugged it off and walked away, as if that was his way of showing the conversation was done. Takuya couldn't blame him, he was kind of pushing things.

Like why question their way of fighting or their moral values? He wasn't there originally like they were, and he had no right to question it. There must have been something that scarred them along the way.

Kind of like what happened to him. There was no way that image of him, wide-eyed, frozen...reacting just as a normal person would when faced with a truck that wouldn't stop…

Maybe everything would've been for the better had he not tried to retrieve the ball. Or had he looked at _anything _before blindly rushing out into the streets,

But there was no use in dwelling on the past. He was stuck like this - paralyzed legs that won't do a damn thing now. There was no way he could change it.

"I think it's time to go," Zoe said. "They might track us here, and in this situation, we could have some… minor injuries."

Takuya knew she was referring to him. Everyone looked perfectly fine, maybe a little mark here and there, but otherwise fine. He, on the other hand, was stuck in a wheelchair, and no one knew anything about what he could do. Not even he himself knew that.

The others nodded and put away the little things that might have been out.

JP walked over to where Takuya was, making his way behind the wheelchair.

"I figured you could use some help with that."

"But I can -"

Yet, he was feeling a sleepy, so maybe it wasn't so bad.


	3. For the Better

**Back with an update. Apologizes, but this chapter would not write itself until late January, and then I figured that a scene was out of place, and with the help of Aiko Isari, I fixed it! Well, it is here now, later than it should... **

* * *

><p><strong>For the Better<strong>

Perhaps he really should've done the work himself. Or just deny tagging along with them, though for a different reason this time.

There were just too many places he wanted to see. Most of the land was around the same, but there were few patches of interesting-ness that he just _had _to get to. And while it did seem easy to ask JP to let go of the handles and allow him to explore...he just knew that Kouji was going to yell at him.

The only thing he could really do was just sigh and imagine what was going on inside of there. And to Takuya, that was the most boring-est thing a person could do.

But the sad part was that there never really was a way out of it. He could easily object to being pushed or just ask to move to a closer part, but he knew that no matter what, the wheel would just point towards the place that he wanted to go. It wouldn't point to where he needed to go.

And the little dilemma went on for a couple of days.

Takuya just didn't know how to even stop it. Everyday was the same old routine that he knew by heart and wish didn't happen. The only thing that made each day a little interesting was the conversations that were occasionally had. A bit more on the world or on the general likes and interests of everyone.

But of course, the thing that really annoyed him the most was the fact that everyone went straight. And it wasn't just Kouji - it was _everyone_. And that included Tommy.

There were no little detours to do anything but pursue whatever they were trying to do. Whenever he asked, it was just shrugged off as "We're looking to avoid the enemy and this was the best way to do so."

Really, it just ticked him off.

"How do you know they won't suspect you walking in a straight path? They don't seem to be idiots. At least not what I've seen," Takuya said after awhile.

Everyone stopped to turn to face him. There were these weird expressions that he couldn't place at all. Their faces were all in some kind of thoughtful position while the mouth was doing something different on each person's face.

"We've been doing this for awhile now," Zoe finally said after about a minute of silence. Everyone's faces returned to normal at that point. "They never come straight at us. At least, not the most threatful ones."

"Which basically means they're mindless idiots and you have no reason to worry," Kouji said. At that moment, he turned around and began to walk forward. He seemed to not care if no one followed.

"Can't argue with him there," JP stated. He paused for a bit before continuing. "Though you may want to worry a bit about running into any enemies. With your condition...well, you know."

Takuya did know. But still, it didn't hinder the fact that he wanted to explore _something_. He was getting restless, and considering he was confined to sitting for the rest of his life, he had to do something. Getting caught wasn't exactly one of his problems.

The problem was, everything quickly returned to normal once the little conversation ended. And normal was hard to break.

-0-0-0-

"How _dare _that ponytail wearing fool insult me like that!"

If there wasn't already a list of things she hated, there was one coming right now. And just above insults were insults by that ponytail wearing fool. Really, he didn't amuse her one bit.

Though, she supposed he did, in some rather odd way. Ranamon wasn't much of a fighter - she chose to leave that to Mercurymon, though he didn't really fight much either - but now she had an urge to slap that smug smile away. And maybe even drown him in a whirlpool of water.

Ranamon sighed. If only she had her beast spirit, then it would be easy to drown him. And the others, but they did nothing to completely aggravate her. But no, life just didn't work in her favor and didn't allow her to keep it. And after she finally managed to dig it up from the depths of the ocean…

She gracefully jumped off the branch and landed on the tips of her feet. At this point, everyone was way far ahead to notice her, so it didn't even matter if her landing wasn't so graceful.

"Nothing better than an old fashion beating."

So what if her beast spirit was gone? Her human spirit was quite capable of doing plenty of damage. And there was always that off chance she would be able rescue it from somehow.

With a cry of "whipping wave!", a torrent of water came flooding from all sides. Within seconds the area was flooded and there really was no way for any non-aquatic life to survive for a while.

Though since she was "nice," any non-aquatic life _here _would survive. This was the most they were getting the water for, for the real prize was up there.

Ranamon hopped onto the water, it taking a bit of a physical shape the moment her feet collided with the water.

She _was _water, there was no reason why she couldn't control it or ride on it. It, after all, was the only thing that completely obeyed her, no questions asked. And she was forever grateful for that.

And there was this little thrill Ranamon had, riding on the water after so long of having to walk and finally being able to get those nuisances. From overhearing the conversation, she knew they weren't ready for her. And they will never be.

It took only a minute for the water to reach to the point of where the other Legendary Warriors were. Within that minute, she saw four burst of light, and one coming directly at her.

"Well, might as well dance."

-0-0-0-

Oh how wrong Zoe was, and oh how much he _didn't _care.

Truth be told, Kouji preferred running into enemies - they made nice punching bags, _especially _when he was really annoyed. Ranamon being one of the enemies only made it better. She was the one he hated the most, and wanted to be destroyed faster. Too bad life never worked out for him the way he wanted it to.

But the feeling of jabbing her with his Licht Schwert was priceless. He could do it a thousand times over if he had the chance. But once now was enough.

"Draining Rain!"

Kouji quickly made his way back into the water. He was a lot faster as Lobomon as he was in his human form, and diving straight into the mini-ocean wasn't that hard. Getting out of it with Ranamon on top of it was even harder.

"Doesn't seem so smart now, huh? Whipping Wave!"

Suddenly, the water that had just be splashing his body went above him, entrapping him in what almost seemed like a water prison.

_Does she seriously underestimate me like that?_

Just a simple Lobo Kendo and it was done. Evaporated. And most importantly, he was free.

"Lobo Kendo!"

And the drops of water turned red and launched straight at him.

_Why are they…!_

"Tempest Twist!" Zoe yelled, cutting through his thoughts.

He could see Ranamon being knocked slightly off by the sudden kick, but nothing that she couldn't brush off.

"You gotta do better than that, sweetie."

And the timing was perfect. Kouji steady his left arm, aiming perfectly at Ranamon's chest. And with a little smirk…

"Howling Laser!"

Only the timing wasn't perfect. Right as the laser was close to making contact, it collided with electrified snow balls, creating a poof that only resulted in no one getting hurt.

"Aww...and Zoe planned it out so perfectly too!" Tommy whined from the tree he was on. On a thicker branch above him was Blitzmon, probably the one supplying the electricity.

"And we might have gotten her too."

There seemed to be no complaint directed at Kouji, which surprised him. But at least then his attention was redirected from the red water he was attacked by.

But he wasn't mister nice, and nothing held him back from voicing his feelings.

"Stay out of this, Zoe."

He ran up for another Lobo Kendo as she was about to attempt to get another Tempest Twist on Ranamon. With both of the two attacks, Ranamon easily slid into the water and allowed it to reach up and grab the two of them.

The water was still red and smelled like -

"Shouldn't we do something about Takuya?" Zoe yelled, despite her own wings being crippled due to the water. Really, she wasn't in a position to care about others.

"You do it. I have business to take care of."

Kouji took out his Licht Schwert once again in preparation for yet another Lobo Kendo. Running up to Ranamon proved easy, despite the water surrounding the plain. It was just launching and landing an attack that proved to be hard.

"But Kouji!"

He didn't care what Zoe said. She could just de-Spirit Evolve and rush over to him, couldn't she?

"It isn't best to get distracted by petty things," Ranamon said, forming a rain cloud over Kouji's head.

But he knew this was going to happen. He knew her fighting style. It was tricky and deceiving, but interesting nonetheless. Still, the Draining Rain didn't stop him from hitting Ranamon with the attack. It was weaker, but considerably stronger than the failure of an attack Zoe launched.

"Listen to me! I can't get over there easily, neither can Tommy or JP! You're the only one who can! We can take care of Ranamon, so just go and get him!"

He allowed himself to steal a quick glance at Zoe while in the middle of attempting to slash Ranamon. She was in human form, but covered by water this time. And she didn't bother to move at all.

_Idiot._

Another quick glance was on its way to Takuya...and that wasn't a sight he was happy to see.

He was used to this kid stuck on his little wheelchair, but yet managing to look somewhat happy. And now…

_You don't have time for that!  
><em> He went in for yet another slash - not caring if he was using one of the moves that came in with his armor. Defeating Ranamon was what mattered, not the moves.

But she swiftly jumped away and called an "Acid Rain". On top of that, the water was manipulated to form a shield around her.

"Might not want to underestimate water."

Without even needing an attack aimed at her, she controlled the water again, this time allowing the shield to morph a bit to send torrents of water.

"Like hell I would." It was a joke.

The torrents weren't that overwhelming. Kouji could easily block them with his sword and reflect them other places that didn't matter. The entire area was water based anyways. Not like anymore water was going to hurt it.

He was about to go in for yet another slash - this time aimed precisely at her neck. It wouldn't kill her the exact way it would kill him if he was in his human form, but it would get rid of her. And that was all he needed.

"_Goodbye_," he said, mustering up all the venom in him. There was a lot, but Ranamon seemed to enjoy it.

"It only makes payback better."

He brought the sword up. While he knew that there was a shield blocking him and any attacks from even touching Ranamon, he knew there were ways around it. Faking it was one of those ways.

A smirk danced on his face. There was nothing wrong with the plan he mapped out. Sure it was quick, but it was working. Zoe, JP, and Tommy weren't interfering anymore and Takuya was always helpless. Always.

Except, he wasn't calculating the blow to be stopped before it even hit the water shield.

_This was what she was talking about._

He always hated it when things like that happened.

-0-0-0-

There were three things running through Takuya's mind when he stopped the blow: He was going to die, he was going to get rewarded, and he was going to end up in a worse condition _if _he somehow managed not to die. And managing not to die was somewhat unlikely when he knew who was behind him. And when he knew who was capable of the killing.

As for the rewarded part, he had thought being captured and then gifted with power and then joining the darkside. Perhaps a cure as opposed to power. Or a temporary one for when he was human.

Because Takuya wasn't one now, but he still had the feelings of one. And that meant that killing was wrong, no matter what.

"I thought you were supposed to be on _our _side."

It did make sense, but…

"Don't you ever stop and think about your enemies? How much you kill them? For what?" He turned around to face...Kouji, as it seemed to be the only way to call him at the moment - the form he was in was foreign to Takuya. However, he kept one hand on Ranamon just in case of that last second something. Maybe he could evaporate part of it and let it leave in peace or something like that. Of course, only on the extremely harsh orders of a certain someone.

"This world! You see it, it's practically gone. All because of these guys."

Kouji's eyes narrowed. They weren't piercing, but they seemed annoyed. Angered. One of those emotions that began with "a" - with the mask, it was even harder to tell.

But the masks… "Don't you do the same though? I never saw it before, but the fighting added up to _something _in this world, didn't it?"

"The safety of this world."

The voice came behind him though. He didn't know what Kouji was doing until he felt shock that almost knocked him down unto the floor.

"I assume the Warrior of Darkness wishes to join our side now. Wouldn't that be an interesting trade-off."

The comment was directed to Ranamon, and it forced Takuya to let go of its arm. No telling when it would make another comeback and such.

Which it did. Another torrent of water, very similar to the ones that appeared before, came spiraling at Kouji. Who gleefully struck it back with his sword.

"I'm pretty sure at this point he would enjoy it."

"Kouji, _stop it_!"

Takuya was kind of out of the fight, keeping to the sidelines and avoiding getting sucked in by the water. Now, however, made no sense. First off, there was the plain fact that Kouji went back to fighting despite Takuya attempting to get him back to his senses. Attempting, but hey, attempting nonetheless.

And now there was the sheer mockery. Of him, and it made no sense. He was only trying to help better the world the way _he _saw fit. And while Takuya was one to respect everyone's opinions, he couldn't see how Kouji's managed to help the world even more.

Then he took a look behind him. There he saw Zoe struggling for a branch to hold onto and JP and Tommy hiding in a tree.

"It wasn't a good plan!"

And Takuya could see that from the moment the fight started. No regard to everyone else, just fighting.

Perhaps had everyone else taken part of the fight, Takuya would be able to tolerate it more, but no. There was teamwork in Zoe's, JP's, and Tommy's plan. There was only lust in Kouji's.

"You left everyone out. I thought this was a team!"

But he could still see Kouji fighting, and not listening. Probably to the voice that told him to continue mocking almost everything, but not to what Takuya was yelling towards him.

"How is this going to aid the safety of the world?"

He noted the stop in Kouji's movements. Maybe that was a bad time to do so at the moment, but at least it achieved what Takuya wanted.

"By someone getting rid of the things that don't belong."

Takuya turned back to normal at this point. "It would've been justified if you worked as a team."

The words came out sad. Because he was done. Done with this team and done with this situation.

Maybe if the team seemed like something he could easily get into, then he would stick around. But no, Takuya knew what was ruining what could be a good team, and he just didn't want to deal with it anymore. Not at all.

The week - though it felt much more like a day - had already been a bad one, and there wasn't any room to just beat around anymore.

"Kouji, I'm done."

-0-0-0-

It took a while for the water to finally drain away, allowing Takuya to finally retrieve his wheelchair and head out like he planned. It required help from JP, but he didn't mind JP - he was nice. And honestly, it saddened him that he would have to leave the other half of the group. They were fun and helpful. And caring. They at least cared about each other, and it extended to him.

However, Takuya knew he wasn't officially part of the group. Nor did he want to be at the moment. The teamwork aspect proved to be one of the weak points of the group, and he knew exactly where it came from.

But he wasn't pointing fingers. He already told Kouji he was done, and he already told the other part of the group why he was done. And they understood. Even agreed with him on multiple points. They just refused to leave him because they cared.

And they cared about Takuya too - but the explanation of what he saw Kouji do and the fact that he could take care of himself somehow sold them over. Really, it was a good group.

But he had to leave, and it was probably for the better. At least now he could view whatever he felt like viewing and explore. That was something he constantly wanted to do, but couldn't because he was held back by what the team needed to do.

Now, however, it was different. With no real end goal in sight, he could finally help this world in the way he sees fit. And not have to deal with arrogant people.

"Bye, everyone!" He said with one final wave. Almost everyone waved back before Takuya finally left to head on his own.


End file.
